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Renewable Energy and Sustainability from the Supply Side: a Critical Review and Analysis

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Renewable Energy and Sustainability from the Supply Side: a Critical Review and Analysis applied sciences Review Renewable Energy and Sustainability from the Supply Side: A Critical Review and Analysis Susana Garrido *, Tiago Sequeira and Marcelo Santos Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra (CEBER), Av. Dias da Silva, 165, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal; [email protected] (T.S.); [email protected] (M.S.) * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 17 July 2020; Accepted: 17 August 2020; Published: 20 August 2020 Abstract: This article provides a critical review of the literature on the relationship between renewable energies and sustainability considering the three dimensions of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental. First, a bibliometric tool is used and then a more in-depth analysis of selected literature is performed, focusing on the type of renewable energy analyzed and the level of development of countries, the dimension of sustainability focused on and the country’s development level, and the type of renewable energies focused on and the dimension of sustainability analyzed. It represents a milestone in the topic giving insights on the state of the art of the research on this research area, enhancing empirical evidence on the kind of relationships and developing a discussion on how closely aligned the political and institutional discourses are with the research concerns. We conclude that, while studies on lower-income countries focus on lower-rung energies, studies on higher-income countries focus on the study of more diversified sources. Moreover, wind–solar energy is the most reported in the articles concerned with environmental sustainability. Our main recommendation is to further investigate the implementation of modern renewable energies in developing countries, to help those countries to climb the energy ladder toward cleaner energy supply. Keywords: renewable energies; sustainability; review; energy resources 1. Introduction The concepts of sustainable development and sustainability are interchangeable, and usually include three dimensions: economic, social, and environmental [1]. The concept of sustainable development was first provided in the report of the Bruntland Commission, where it was defined as “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [2], meaning that economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection are the three main pillars of sustainable development [3]. The initial concept of sustainability was associated with environmental concerns, focused specifically on the preservation of resources. This has now become a milestone for the entire business community. For example, Herbohn et al. [4] warned of the risk of extinction of iconic species or loss of entire ecosystems and water resource threats. Among the most widely acknowledged definitions of sustainability is the so-called triple bottom line (TBL), in which economic, social, and environmental responsibility are emphasized [5]. One of the most effective ways to achieve sustainability targets is to reduce energy consumption, along with its many adverse consequences. There are two fundamental ways to do so: employ energy saving measures or use renewable energy (RE) to generate power. As these energy-related measures contribute so heavily to sustainability, investors find RE technologies very attractive. Discovering and implementing new technologies are important steps in the provision of cheap, reliable, ecologically sound, and accessible energy around the world [6]. Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 5755; doi:10.3390/app10175755 www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 5755 2 of 29 Painuly [7] identified a set of factors that should be considered while assessing the development of RE, mainly the techno-economic and economic factors. Moreover, numerous studies indicate different factors that exert an impact on RE development. For example, Aguirre and Ibikunle [8] included socio-economic factors and countries’ income (Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth or GDP per capita). In the Renewables 2018 Global Status Report [9], the statistics associated with RE power production capacities in 2017 show that the biggest economies now produce most of the RE (BRICs (429 Gigawatts), EU-28 (320 Gigawatts), China (334 Gigawatts), USA (161 Gigawatts), and Germany (106 Gigawatts)) since they are more inclined to invest in some form of RE [10]. These last authors pointed out that the domestic availability of conventional fossil fuel resources in most developing countries is inadequate, which forces those countries to import energy or the fuel to produce it. Population growth in these countries adds to the demand for imported energy, making the economic situation of the developing countries even more difficult. Apergis and Danuletiu [11] argued that there exists a bidirectional causality between energy consumption and economic growth, pointing out that RE supports economic growth, which in turn encourages the use of more RE. According to these authors, this results in a virtuous cycle, boosting the economy and benefitting society. Additionally, there is an empirical regularity between development (or per capita income) and the energy ladder (i.e., the gradual replacement of fuel fossil sources of energy by renewable sources). In this line, Ramalho et al. [12] concluded that income growth (associated with democratic countries) encourages the replacement of hydroelectric and oil sources by coal and nuclear and less by natural gas and renewable sources such as biomass, wind, and others. Despite the recognized relationship between renewable energies and the level of development of countries, the research that has been published on this topic is quite narrow in scope. Bozkurt and Destek [13] analyzed the consumption of renewable and non-renewable energies to explore their impacts on the environment using a case study methodology (24 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries) for the period 1980–2014. In addition, the Alam and Murad [14] investigated the impact of a set of macroeconomic variables such as economic growth on renewable energy use in the short run and long run across 25 OECD countries. Zafar et al. [15], adopting a more general approach, focused on the effects of non-renewable and renewable energy consumption on economic growth of countries. It is strategic to study the state of the art about the kind of research that has been published that focuses on the relationship between countries’ development and the type of RE(s) in a way that makes it possible to identify which RE(s) are studied and implemented in which countries according to their level of development. Thus, introducing RE as an alternative energy would help to keep trade balanced, and securing access to adequate energy supplies is a vital challenge to economic development [16]. The relationship between sustainability and the level of countries’ development is an important topic contributing to a better understanding of whether countries with different levels of development also have different sustainability behaviors. According to Juknys et al. [17], in the developed countries, people’s well-being does not necessarily follow from economic growth, and social sustainability is sometimes not achieved. From the perspective of the same authors, gradually slowing the rate of economic growth to zero is the natural way to obtain sustainability, especially in countries that greatly exceed their bio-capacity. Thus, the relationship between countries’ development and their sustainability has become a fashionable topic. Another issue arises from the literature review, which reveals a strong belief that the concerns about the different dimensions of sustainability depend on the country on which the study is based. As this topic is so important, it is strategic to know how it has been studied among the scholarly community. Zhang et al. [18] investigated the links between research and development, transport, real income, and transport’s CO2 emissions in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries from 1990 to 2015. Wang et al. [19] used panel data techniques to analyze the drivers of RE use in a group of 32 countries. Basu and Trica [20] analyzed the sustainability of the circular economy indicators and based on a panel data propose a model for determining the dependency of Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 5755 3 of 29 the main circular economy factors on EU economic growth. As these works are quite specific in their scope, an important contribution to the research community would be a work giving an enlarged and more comprehensive vision about the type of studies that have addressed the relationship between a country’s development and the dimension of sustainability more focused on. There are many works in the literature pertaining to renewable energies and sustainability, but these topics are typically studied individually or use different research methods and target different goals. For instance, Picchi et al. [21] performed a literature review to explore the relationship between renewable energies and ecosystem services for landscape planning and design. Lammers and Hoppe [22], based on a literature review, investigated what local energy planning and implementation processes look like in the post-liberalization era. Jenniches [23] reviewed the literature for methods of assessing economic impacts of the transition to RE generation at the regional level. There are also some literature reviews on a specific source of RE, such as the work in [24],
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